This blog is all about me - not my children, my job, my family. Just me. It's great to have a space of my own in the world! Thank you for being here and enjoy your stay!
"LIFE ISN'T ABOUT WAITING FOR THE STORM TO PASS.......... IT'S ABOUT LEARNING TO DANCE IN THE RAIN."

STAND BY ME

Saturday, September 29, 2012

As many of you know, I love round robin journals and have been lucky enough to do numerous journals with the same group of wonderful ladies for years now.

Our latest project is called VINTAGE ANCESTORS. This is the idea: Everyone creates a journal and starts it off with a family or family member with the use of cabinet cards! If you are familiar with cabinet cards, it appears that only ugly people got their pictures taken back then. They are AWFUL!!

There are 10 artists in this group. They can choose to leave the ugly relative as is or alter their cabinet card. They now write a story about this family/relative and send it on to the next person. This next artist adds a relative to this family. On one side they will have their cabinet card and on the other side a story about that relative.

With the amazing ladies in this group I can not wait to hear about all my lost relatives!!! It is bound to be a journal of hilarity and fun!

Today I started my journal. I have had an idea in my head for a while and I'm happy to report I was able to bring that idea to life! (Now, THAT, does not happen often so humor me here!).

I went to Ebay (one of my favorites haunts) and purchased a vintage cabinet card album. You know those albums..... the one that house all those ugly people?

I took the album apart as so.....

These are the cabinet card photo pages that came in the book. Each of these pages "house" two cabinet cards back to back.

I then cut bristol paper to size and folded it in half to make the pages for the signatures.

What I wanted was to use the cabinet card photo pages in the journal but allow a page for the writing and art. You have a cabinet card slot on the right with a page for art on the left, and when you flip the page, you can place a cabinet card on the left and do art on the right. Seemed easy in my head....

I was quite proud of this idea but had some technical difficulties with it. How as I going to put the photo page in between the folded bristol page? How was I going to secure it down so that even with all the manhandling it would receive, it would not fall apart?

I then decided to put the photo page BEHIND the folded bristol page. I could still accomplish what I wanted and there would be two blank pages after every layout which could be used to add some extra collage work or art by those who wanted to add something else. If not, they could just be taped closed and voila! No worries.

First I used the tissue tape to tape the photo page to the bristol paper but it seemed flimsy (because the photo page is relatively heavier) and didn't give me a soft and fuzzy feeling. So now what?

Tyvek of course!!! I cut strips of Tyvek and put tons of scor-tape on them. I then attached the photo page (which is heavy) to the bristol page with the Tyvek. This was becoming indestructible!

So now I have the photo page securely attached to the bristol paper and am still not happy. The space between the bristol paper and the photo page looked ugly.

SEE??????

So I cut up some pretty vintage papers in strips and added them with scor-tape to all the areas between the pages - both the bristol to bristol and the bristol to photo page. Not only did it look great, but it was yet another reinforcement. (This Journal can go to WAR!)

This is what the book block looked like after all the above was done. Pretty Huh? Too bad I don't want to leave it like that!

Back to the Tyvek! I cut a strip of Tyvek and covered the entire spine of the book block with it. Not only does this mega-secure the book block, but it allows me to tape the spine to the fabric that will cover it.

When you open the book, this is what you see. What I had originally wanted.... a photo page on the right with the art page on the left.. and

When you flip the photo page, you have another cabinet card slot on the left with the art page on the right!

The fun part has to wait. I'm so done for today! Time to pull out lace, doilies, flowers, charms.... oh lord!!! The possibilities to decorate this book are ENDLESS!!!

Friday, September 28, 2012

The Fiskars ProCision Paper Trimmer is FANTASTIC. A little pricey at $100 but if you need a good trimmer that will last - this is it. Shop around. They are promoting this now so a lot of online stores have it for up to 40% off.

Thursday, September 27, 2012

In one of my groups I signed up for a mail art project. I am really glad I did. I had never done it before and I really enjoyed it.

I had seen a youtube video where the artist made mail art using regular office manilla file folders. I loved the idea of the envelopes being strong and tried my hand at a few of those.

You start with a letter size manilla folder and you cut it to the size you want your envelope to be. (Don't throw away the other part of the folder!! You can cut tags out with the Alterations Tag Die!).

After some collage, some stamping and some this and that.....

Voila! Mail Art!

This one was also done with a file folder by with color sprays instead of paper collage.

I wanted to see how a regular Size 10 envelope would work out with mail art. Not happy at all. I opened the envelopes to be able to work on it as one sheet.

I sprayed the envelope with some beautiful sprays from Lindeys' Stamp Gang. The paper was so flimsy I was not at all happy. I thought maybe it would stiffen some after being sprayed. NOT!

When the envelope continued to be way too flimsy, I covered the inside of the envelop with black cardstock. NOW we're talking.

My friend Marita gave me an idea the other day. Seems she is making an art journal out of an old ledger book. It sounded really cool so of course I got on ebay and bought an old ledger book. And I mean OLD! It is from 1939. Its really in great shape and a wonderful size 8x14.

Its the 1939 Tax Collectors Record from Old Lycoming Township. I cant even imagine keeping all these records by hand!!

I think it will make a great art journal! One more item on my things to do list.

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Simple Stories has this wonderful alterable book. (the one with the brown seam). It is 6x8 and comes with tab pages, journal pages and even pockets for photos. It also has a label holder on the side to identify the contents of your book! It is made from very strong chipboard and is really fantastic!

The other two are just the binders. They are made by FarmHouse. One is 7x9 and one is 8x8. Perfect sizes!! The best part?? All 3 of them are ring binders!

I got a book from Amazon: Good Mail Day. It is a fantastic book about mail art (my new "thing"). The book is small but LOADED with great pictures and information. (besides, I LOVE the title!!)

I want to make a couple of small travel journals for myself and a friend. I always try to have at least one waiting for the next trip!

So I bought a couple of kits with a travel theme and two more sets of the Claudine Hellmuth paints.

Yep, a good mail day for sure!! Now I just need to find the time to do the things I want to do!